Author Archives: Guy Redwood

D Class win at Bowlands Husky Race

We finished the rally season by winning the D class at Bowlands. we’ve had a really good year with the racing and did our bit to keep the drinks industry profits high. we had our best Aviemore yet – trying lots of new places to dine out in with a great bunch of people – oh and I smashed the 20 minute barrier and even got faster on the second day due to chasing my new trail buddy, Justin. our new puppy, Mookie, is very happy with his new pals at chez Redwood. he’s definitely a character and putting a lot of effort into doing the usual ‘chew everything’ that puppies do. we’ve got a few shows on the horizon, but I’m keen to enjoy a bit more of he garden this year and that fab warm weather we keep having.

Kelso, Carlisle, Flatbed lorry

this weekend saw Elvis get a 1st in Limit under breed specialist and keen musher, Lindsey Sutherland. we all got a tad excited in the challenge as the judge carefully compared Elvis with his father, Kaliznic.

elvisandcub

as you can see, he was looking rather good chasing his dad around the ring. there are some more photos of him from this show on his page here. what a fabulous venue this show has. it was nice to be only a minute away form the car, without having to go through barriers etc. it was noted by a few, that the few periods of rain had little affect on the dogs that work in Winter. what’s a rain shower to an outdoor dog? many a rally is spent in the wet! I do agree with the judges decision to stay outdoors. the wet-weather ring was tiny and we would never had got the chance to see our boy move so well.

after Kelso, we headed down for a sleepy night at the Metal Bridge hotel in Carlisle. on Sunday, Elvis was placed second to his brother, Fya in Open class, at the SHCGB Northern Open Show. the grass was a tad long and the terrain undulating in the dog ring. he went on to be thrown out of the working stakes class, which left me somewhat speechless, considering he was number 3 in the 2003/4 UK Dual Championship. to finish the day, our Jeep sprung a radiator leak just as we set off, which meant us travelling back to York with the car on the back of flatbed tow truck. suppose we saved on petrol?

big thanks to Mark and Bette for providing coffee and cakes whilst we waited for the AA to turn up to diagnose that we needed a tow home. it was only 12 months ago that the radiator on the mr2 sprung a leak on the way home from Blackpool on a queuing motorway – which then saw a line of husky people pulling over with offers of help. Anthony Rees gave us a bottle of water for Elvis cos this extra wait had not been part of our plan. we have some great friends in the Husky Club.

Doves, Decking & Rigrunner

our dogs had their eye test last weekend under the club eye scheme hosted by John Evans in Brixworth, run by the leading expert, Professor Bedford. fortunately all our dogs remained clear. it has to be said that John was looking rather well and happy in himself. I’m sure it’s more than his pending wedding that produced an aura of ‘life is wonderful’ that followed him around that day.

we’ve been busy building a deck in the back garden. for the growing number of people that’s watching the webcam each day, that’s why the dogs have been sat by the right of the run for much time – keeping an eye on our workmanship. party planning is moving along with an initial list of 75 people. if half accept, it should make a rather pleasant summer evening. our international guest has booked his flight last week!

there were two new squeakers in the dove cote. one brown and one white. it’s the first time we’ve seen two youngsters sit on the edge watching the world go by. As I typed this out in the garden – Helen found the white youngster, minus a head in the grass. I do wish the cats would pick on the more ‘pigeon coloured’ doves in preference to the white ones.

This weekend sees us back in the show ring, Kelso on Saturday and then Carlisle on the Sunday…. I think. one thing is for sure, the fun starts on Friday lunchtime when the rigrunner clan visit, to break up their journey north.

Barrels and a 5th Husky

the dog run is looking a lot smarter now. all 5 barrels are sat on a rack – yup we’ll be adding a young boy to our pack at some point soon. I won’t do the soapbox speech about spreading your dogs out over the years to help keep your pack stable, oap vet bills down and just simply enjoying a pack of mature dogs without upstarts finding their place. the kids now have an extended roof on the dog run and walls have been painted again. I’ll try to take some photos and update the (hidden) information on how we built our dog run for all those curious, soon.

there are some big things on the radar at chez redwood, 2004 could be a real vintage. due to popular demand, we will be having another summer party this year. rsvps will be sent out soon, i think our bedrooms are already nearly booked up. watch this space.

Huskycam goes live from York, in Atlanta

I’m sat at my hotel room desk on the 61st floor over looking the Olympic Park in Atlanta watching our huskies through our new webcam. I’ve just made it live today to all through this site today. I’m sure I found a husky hair in my breakfast this morning…. so even after a 9 hour flight, I’ve still got our boys around me! I wouldn’t want to start any rumours of importing some famous lines from Georgia and New York, would I :-) As always – watch this space.

Elvis in the Dual Championship

Elvis came third in the SHCGB Dual Championship this year, announced at the club AGM on Saturday. This is one hell of an achievement. You only have to stand on the back of rig, watching him work, to comprehend what a good Siberian Husky is all about. I do think that judges should be made to take a team of huskies out to experience what it’s all about. It just makes sense when you see a dog like Elvis working without effort and then compare it to another that’s trying but just isn’t built for it.

Anyway, it’s that time of year where we pick our shows and dream of winter. We’re aiming to do less showing this year. I want to spend more time at home and enjoy a little more of Summer in the garden.

Last month, the rally season came to close with a fabulous rally in Scotland. John Carter invited the husky club up onto his land giving us an amazing set of courses with lots of turns, bumps and hills. The rally attracted a great bunch of people, who hit the town on Saturday night for a quiet meal with a few drinks. The club goes from strength to strength, and our collection of husky friends continues to grow. There’s some really nice people out there in the husky world and life’s too short not to enjoy them.

Snow in Aviemore

so we got snowed in at Aviemore and ended up coming back a day late from our annual holiday…. spending two days on the sled with really fresh snow at Feshie Bridge. Helen came 28th and myself 13th out of 46 in the two-dog class. my runs were slow at times, with Elvis barely trotting along in a world of his own. on the first day we overtook a few malamute and Samoyed teams – one lead Samy took a chunk of hair out of Elvis as we overtook – and I thought Samys were sweet? the second day was more interesting after meeting Sue Blake and Jim Taylor in the first mile of the course. we went around as a group, overtaking and chatting to keep up momentum. for me, that’s one of the great things about Aviemore, we have one minute start intervals so you do get to meet others and enjoy the spirit of one of the largest sled dog races in Europe. car needed jump-starting in the rally car park thanks to the technicians at our local Jeep dealership loosening the battery connectors at its last service….. the trek was absolutely magical. Snow everywhere and was the first time with the monkey for over 10 miles in rough terrain. the monkey rig made it so much more fun. Really stable in the tricky rocky descents, brakes worked a treat and the high footplates didn’t hit a thing. you may have heard me laughing all along the goat trail. it reminded me of the first time I rode a full suspension mountain bike off-road – just so much better than any other rig I’ve used.

Aviemore highlights?

  • meeting Sue on the trail on Sunday
  • playing in the snow with the dogs and running the sled
  • awesome snow covered scenery on the trek
  • 8 days spent with a really cool bunch of friends

– stopping Mick Bray’s loose team running towards me whilst marshalling, after he fell off his rig when his handle bars snapped on the second day.

Aviemore low points?

  • my sniffling cold
  • a stack of mobile speeding cameras on the A66 on the journey up
  • being too tired every night to party (old age?)
  • missing Leslie Monk and Andy Pullen comparing trophies in the bar on Sunday night.

before Aviemore we had a very enjoyable rally at Clipstone. Mick and Ann with helpers put on a really good night and day rally. Saturday evening was a classic with the bar running out of glasses and mixed grills. it’s all down hill from here. the dogs are looking fitter and making more noise in the dog run but the rally season heads

Busy Winter, New Kitchen

what a busy Winter we’re having! busy with work, busy with rallies and busy fitting a new kitchen. Grizedale rally was superb. we had a cracking night in the pub, great food and crazy game of darts – with Leslie Robinson singing ‘gay bar’ between crys of ‘are you going to wee your doggies?’ in keeping with tradition, it rained….. but the dogs loved it and pulled me up the hill on both days. still not fit enough for a good performance on the second day (both musher and dogs), but still a pleasure to run.

we then went to our local rally in Dalby. new course, with an interesting road crossing that looked like a finish line to my boys on both days…. we had a house full with visitors. Friday night we discovered our local pub does serve good food, and Saturday took us for a great night in York – Meltons2 is a fab place to eat.

Fineshades was superb as always. we missed last year’s rally due to kennel cough – so this year we enjoyed it with a vengence. warmed by mulled wine on both days after two very pleasureable runs. Sunday was colder and the dogs ran faster. Fineshades send the 2 dog classes out first – which is always nice cos the dogs are fresh and excited – maybe that’s why they had a large D class entry?

we do need to get out more and train a little harder. Baloo is beginning to be a little bit of problem for the neighbours with his new found love of life. he’s howling and banging on the kitchen door a little bit too much. We’re going to have a go at building some dogs boxes for them to snooze in over Christmas, so they’ve got somewhere quiet and warm to snuggle up in.